Offaly County Council has rejected a claim it is the largest customer of an unauthorised quarry currently under inquiry by its own planning department.
The claim was made by Mr Tom Standish, who said he operated a quarry at the base of the Slieve Bloom mountains near Aghancon, for which he said he had never received planning permission from Offaly County Council.
The legal status of Mr Standish's quarry is currently being investigated by officials of the local authority.
A number of other unauthorised quarries in the Aghancon area are currently the subject of High Court proceedings being brought by the Offaly County Council.
Mr Standish declined to say if the quarry was an exempted development under the planning act - in effect to claim it had been in operation prior to 1964 - but insisted the issue of authorisation was "a technical matter" which could be resolved "like getting a driving licence".
The operation of unauthorised quarries in the south Offaly area has angered residents, who claim the local roads are not suitable for 18-wheel trucks which are used to transport the stone.
They have complained to the county council about the noise, safety and nuisance caused.
Following a report in this newspaper on the legal action being taken by the council against a number of other quarry operators in the area, Mr Standish contacted The Irish Times to claim Offaly County Council "don't really want to prosecute anyone".
Noting that he was not being prosecuted, he said the council was one of his "biggest customers". He said there would be a quarry on site at Aghacon operated by him "in 10 years' time and 10 years' time after that".
He also maintained the quarries of the area employ 95 people and "that matters much more to the people of Offaly than planning permission".
However, last week Mr Ambrose O'Gorman, a senior executive officer in the Planning and Development section of Offaly County Council, said the authority had "no hesitation" in rejecting Mr Standish's comments.
Mr O'Gorman said the County Council had now "taken the view that Mr Standish's quarry was an unauthorised activity which requires planning permission" and the council was proceeding on this basis.
He rejected Mr Standish's suggestion the council was among the quarry's biggest customers.
Mr O'Gorman told The Irish Times that following a trawl through the council records "some small amounts" of stone appeared to have been brought from Mr Standish's quarry in or about 15 years ago. He insisted that in recent years there was no documentation to suggest any purchases had been made from the quarry.
Mr O'Gorman did acknowledge the council had recently purchased some wood products from a sawmill operated by Mr Standish.
He also acknowledged the sawmill had been the subject of local complaint and that no planning permission for the sawmill had been traced by the council after an inquiry.
Offaly County Council has now given Mr Standish a deadline to either prove the quarry is exempt from planning permission or to close it. The inquiry into the sawmill was at an earlier stage, he said.
Mr O'Gorman pointed to High Court action taken against a quarry in the Edenderry area as proof of the council's determination that planning matters would be enforced.
He repeated earlier assurances that "Offaly County Council takes unauthorised activity very seriously".